Turkey agrees to hand over contentious Bashiqa base to Iraq
The planned handover of the Bashiqa base would address one of the most contentious issues in Ankara-Baghdad ties.
ANKARA — Turkey will gradually hand over control of the Bashiqa military base to Iraq, one of the most contentious points in Ankara-Baghdad ties, the two countries said in a joint statement released Wednesday.
The statement came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Zaidi met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“Turkish forces will gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zilkan base to the Iraqi Federal Government,” the statement said.
The statement linked the handover to Iraq’s removal of foreign militants from the Iraqi Yazidi region of Sinjar. “The sides agreed to deepen cooperation in the security field; in this context, they agreed on fully restoring state authority in Sinjar and ending the presence of banned foreign armed elements,” it said.
